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Nigeria's army has reached a cease-fire deal with the extremist group Boko Haram that could lead to the release of more than 200 schoolgirls who were abducted in April and whose release quickly became an international cause.

According to NPR's Ofeibea Quist-Arcton, Nigeria's official news agency is quoting the country's defense chief, Air Marshal Alex Badeh, as saying a truce has been reached. Badeh announced the truce and ordered his troops to immediately comply with the agreement, according to The Associated Press.

"I wish to inform this audience that a ceasefire agreement has been concluded," Badeh said in a statement after three days of talks with the militant group, Reuters says.

At a news conference in the capital, Abuja, Mike Omeri, the government spokesman on the insurgency, said Boko Haram negotiators had assured the government "that the schoolgirls and all other people in their captivity are all alive and well."

"Already, the terrorists have announced a cease-fire in furtherance of their desire for peace. In this regard, the government of Nigeria has, in similar vein, declared a cease-fire," Omeri said.

According to AP, Omeri "confirmed there had been direct negotiations this week about the release of the abducted girls. Another official said the talks took place in neighboring Chad. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to talk to reporters."

By way of background, AP writes:

"Boko Haram - the group's nickname means "education is sinful" - attracted international condemnation with the April 15 kidnapping of 276 girls and young women writing final examinations at a boarding school in the remote northeastern town of Chibok.

Dozens escaped on their own in the first couple of days, but 219 remain missing. Their plight drew protests around the world with demands that the military and government get them free."

Boko Haram

Nigeria

Police in Hong Kong moved aggressively to dismantle a pro-democracy protest site in the city's congested Mong Kok district, launching a dawn raid to remove metal and bamboo barricades at one of three areas where student activists have staged rallies calling for open elections in the former British colony.

The operation to clear the protest camp after weeks of pro-government demonstrations and sit-ins, "came while many protesters were asleep on the asphalt in dozens of tents or beneath giant, blue-striped tarpaulin sheets," Reuters says.

The news agency says police stormed into the intersection "with helmets, plastic riot shields and batons at the ready from four directions, the deployment of 800 officers caught the protesters by surprise. Many retreated without resisting."

Police gave a short warning on loud hailers before moving in although no direct force was used, witnesses said, according to Reuters.

It was the third such raid in recent days by police who have sought to take back the streets from protesters.

As recently as Thursday, the government renewed an offer of talks with student activists who have called for the resignation of the territory's Beijing-appointed chief executive, Leung Chun-ying and for open elections in 2017.

With the operation to clear the Mong Kok site coming hours later, Occupy Central, the leading student-led activist group organizing the protests, accused Leung's administration of insincerity.

The South China Morning Post, the territory's leading – and largely independent — English-language daily reports:

"The pro-democracy movement questioned the government's sincerity in engaging in dialogue following a dawn operation that returned traffic to the streets in one of the busiest areas of the city in a dawn operation.

"'Police removed barricades in Mong Kok 15 hours after [chief executive] Leung Chun-ying said engaging in dialogue didn't mean the government would not clear the protest sites. We think it amounts to an open insult to the intelligence of Hong Kong people,' Occupy Central said in a statement.

"'If [the government] continues to clear protest sites gradually under the disguise of removing barricades, it would only provoke more people to take to streets.'"

Hong Kong protests

China

Updated: 1:55 a.m. ET Friday:

Helicopters on Friday renewed their search for missing trekkers after there were improvements in the weather. Officials in Nepal say at least 29 people are dead — dozens more are missing or are stranded. The government also announced that officials would evaluate rescue efforts after the government was criticized for not doing more to help.

Original Post:

The death toll from unseasonal snowstorms and avalanches in Nepal that trapped dozens of trekkers on the slopes of the Himalayas has risen to 27, with 70 more still missing, Nepalese authorities say.

At least a dozen people are dead on the Annapurna Circuit, and 10 others have been killed in surrounding areas. Many of the dead are foreign trekkers from Canada, Poland, France, Israel, Slovakia and India. At least eight Nepalese are also among the casualties, the BBC says.

The Associated Press quotes Ganga Sagar Pant of the Trekking Agencies Association of Nepal as saying that some 70 people are still missing along or near the popular Annapurna trail, where the death toll was expected to rise.

The Guardian reports:

"High winds and blizzards hit much of central Nepal this week as the tail end of a cyclone travelling west across northern India reached the Himalayan mountain chain. The head of the Trekking Agencies Association Nepal said there had never been a disaster like it.

"The trekking group is reported to be trapped close to the 5,400m (17,700ft) Thorong La, a pass on the famous three-week Annapurna circuit route. Clear weather has raised hopes that they will be reached before further deaths, though there are concerns that members may be suffering exposure, frostbite and severe dehydration."

The AP says:

"Government administrator Yama Bahadur Chokhyal said rescuers recovered 10 more bodies from the Thorong La pass area, where they had been caught in a sudden blizzard Tuesday.

"The bodies were not yet identified.

"Chokhyal said 64 more foreign trekkers were rescued from the area on Thursday. Two trekkers from Hong Kong and 12 Israelis were airlifted Wednesday to Katmandu, where they were being treated at a hospital."

Nepal

To stop the raging Ebola epidemic in West Africa, "we need to pay attention to where the fire is burning."

That means there is no "magic solution," Jim Yong Kim, the head of the World Bank, told NPR's Steve Inskeep during an interview on Morning Edition. So appointing an Ebola czar to monitor the international response isn't going to suddenly stop the outbreak.

Neither will closing the borders between U.S. and the three hardest-hit countries: Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

To Kim, that's not a long-term solution: "It's like you're in your room and the house is on fire, and your approach is to put wet towels under the door. That might work for a while, but unless you put the fire out, you're still in trouble."

"The way to stop this epidemic from coming at an even higher level in the United States is actually try to stop it in its tracks," he says of the many U.S. health workers who have volunteered to go overseas.

He says what's most important is not only getting protocols in place in the United States but in the three hardest hit countries: Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. That means quickly identifying cases and instituting a high level of infection control — not just standard precautions.

"We've got to have very high-quality protective equipment," he says. "When patients get sick we need to provide intensive care."

The good news, he says, is that leaders like President Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron has stepped up in their aid. But the response has just been inadequate for an outbreak that dates back to December of last year. "We are only now getting comprehensive plans for how we are going to attack this epidemic," he says.

What's really missing are health workers, he says. "While we can move thing and build structures what we need are skilled health workers who can do all the complicated things you need to stop the epidemic."

Goats and Soda

A Glimmer Of Hope: Nigeria May Have Beaten Ebola

Kim pointed to Nigeria to illustrate the level of intervention needed to stop the current outbreak. With the help of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization, Nigeria was able to contain the outbreak, with 19 confirmed cases and only seven related deaths.

Still, "it cost them $13 million and more than 200 physicians [and] 600 other health workers," he says. "They had to do 19,000 home visits taking temperatures in order to get it control."

He acknowledges that with nearly 9,000 cases so far, there's a lot of work to be done. Yet he's confident that the international community will be able to stop Ebola — although he stresses that "we've got to move much more quickly."

Jim Yong Kim

ebola

World Bank